False Statements

Trump frequently makes false statements, large and small, unintentionally or otherwise. Politifact, a Pulitzer-prize winning service that evaluates the statements of politicians for their honesty, awarded his 2015 political statements with their "Lie of the Year" designation. According to their statistics, 4 percent of his statements are true. Eleven percent are "mostly true." Another 15 percent are "half true." The remaining 70 percent range from "mostly false" to "pants on fire." (Source: Politifact.)

Timeline

2017.12.20

The White House turned over records this fall to special counsel Robert Mueller revealing that in the very first days of the Trump presidency, Don McGahn researched federal law dealing both with lying to federal investigators and with violations of the Logan Act, a centuries-old federal law that prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.foreignpolicy.com(See also Michael Flynn, Trump Relationship with Russia, Legal Activity)

Donald Trump’s plan to abolish a tax break for hedge-fund managers was kept out of the final tax overhaul legislation -- an act of defiance by congressional leaders who exploited a split among Trump’s advisers.bloomberg.com(See also Steven Mnuchin, Economy, Hypocrisy, Reversals)

2017.12.26

Donald Trump has spent nearly one-third of his time in office this year at one of the properties that either bear his name or that his family company owns.cnn.com(See also Conflicts of Interest, Corruption)

Trump falsely claimed he broke a legislative record, saying that he had signed more legislation than any of his predecessors, while he has actually signed the fewest number of bills into law of any first-year president dating back to Dwight Eisenhower.politico.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior)

Donald Trump in October promised to "liberate" Americans from the "scourge of addiction," officially declaring a 90-day public health emergency that would urgently mobilize the federal government to tackle the opioid epidemic, but that declaration runs out on Jan. 23, virtually nothing of consequence has been done.politico.com(See also Domestic Policy, Unpresidential Behavior)

Trump has not formally proposed any new resources or spending, typically the starting point for any emergency response.

2018.01.11

Donald Trump stood with the Norwegian Prime Minister and announced that the U.S-made F-52s fighter aircraft was delivered to Norway, but the “F-52” is a fictional jet only available to fly if you’re a gamer at the controls of “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfarewashingtonpost.com(See also Foreign Policy, Russia)

2018.01.12

Donald Trump has cancelled a visit to Britain next month to open the new US embassy in London, amid fears of mass protests, despite his inaccurate tweets that claim other reasons.theguardian.com(See also Foreign Policy)

Donald Trump continues to tell his associates he believes the highly controversial Republican memo alleging the FBI abused its surveillance tools could help discredit the Russia investigation.cnn.com(See also Belief in Conspiracy Theories, Corruption)

2018.02.01

Donald Trump incorrectly tweeted that more people watched him deliver the State of the Union than at any point in history, with a viewership of 45.6 million.buzzfeed.com(See also Assaults on Facts)

Two million more people watched President Barack Obama deliver the same speech in 2010.

2018.02.01

The FBI agent accused of undermining Donald Trump and being sympathetic to Hilary Clinton has been revealed as the initial author of a controversial FBI decision that upended Clinton's campaign just days before the 2016 election: the letter to Congress by then-FBI Director James Comey announcing the bureau was investigating newly discovered Clinton emails.cnn.com(See also 2016 Campaign, Corruption)

2018.02.02

K.T. McFarland, picked by Donald Trump to be the U.S. ambassador to Singapore, withdrew from consideration for the job on Friday after her nomination became stalled in the U.S. Senate, due to concerns about her testimony to Congress over communications with Russia.reuters.com(See also Resignations and Dismissals, Russia)

2018.02.13

The White House changed its story on Tuesday about how it handled allegations of spousal abuse against Rob Porter, the staff secretary who resigned in disgrace, conceding that the F.B.I. told White House career officials last summer about problems in Mr. Porter’s background check, but members of President Trump’s team said top advisers in the West Wing were kept in the dark.nytimes.com(See also Reversals, Resignations and Dismissals)

2018.02.14

Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin’s chief of staff doctored an email and made false statements to create a pretext for taxpayers to cover expenses for the secretary’s wife on a 10-day trip to Europe last summer, the agency’s inspector general has found.washingtonpost.com(See also Trump Cabinet)

Shulkin is one of five current and former Trump administration Cabinet members under investigation by agency inspectors general over their travel expenses.

2018.02.22

In a memo distributed to staff, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services—the agency tasked with processing citizenship for applicants—announced it has scrubbed a passage of its mission statement of references to the U.S. being a nation of immigrants.splinternews.com(See also Nationalism, Immigration)

2018.03.01

The top lobbyist for the National Rifle Association claimed late Thursday that Donald Trump had already retreated from his surprising support a day earlier for gun control measures after a meeting with N.R.A. officials and Vice President Mike Pence in the Oval Office.nytimes.com(See also Reversals, Mike Pence)

2018.03.02

In the 406 days since he took the oath of office, Donald Trump has made 2,436 false or misleading claims, according to The Fact Checker’s database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement uttered by the president.washingtonpost.com(See also Fact-Checking Resources, Assaults on Facts)

Donald Trump boasted in a fundraising speech that he made up information in a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbor to the north without knowing whether that was true.washingtonpost.com(See also Trade, NAFTA, Unpresidential Behavior)

2018.03.18

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ testimony that he opposed a proposal for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign team to meet with Russians has been contradicted by three people who have spoken about the matter to investigators with Special Counsel Robert Mueller or congressional committees.reuters.com(See also leg, Legal Issues, Jeff Sessions, trump, Trump Relationship with Russia)

Assessment

Writing for Teen Vogue, Lauren Duca writes:

Trump won the Presidency by gas light. His rise to power has awakened a force of bigotry by condoning and encouraging hatred, but also by normalizing deception. Civil rights are now on trial, though before we can fight to reassert the march toward equality, we must regain control of the truth. If that seems melodramatic, I would encourage you to dump a bucket of ice over your head while listening to “Duel of the Fates." Donald Trump is our President now; it’s time to wake up.

"Gas lighting" is a buzzy name for a terrifying strategy currently being used to weaken and blind the American electorate. We are collectively being treated like Bella Manningham in the 1938 Victorian thriller from which the term "gas light" takes its name. In the play, Jack terrorizes his wife Bella into questioning her reality by blaming her for mischievously misplacing household items which he systematically hides. Doubting whether her perspective can be trusted, Bella clings to a single shred of evidence: the dimming of the gas lights that accompanies the late night execution of Jack’s trickery. The wavering flame is the one thing that holds her conviction in place as she wriggles free of her captor’s control.

To gas light is to psychologically manipulate a person to the point where they question their own sanity, and that’s precisely what Trump is doing to this country.